Reverend Edward Bear

Trained at Cuddleston. A bear of very little brain. Professor of hugology. BEAR one anothers burdens.

[Edmund Barnett-Ward @Edmund_B_W]

For too long, criticism of Ofsted has been met with the same tired false binary: that ensuring children's safety must somehow come at the expense of headteacher wellbeing.
Lucy Powell's approach makes that argument increasingly difficult to sustain...

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 Farage says that if the House of Lords obstructs his legislation, he’ll appoint hundreds of peers to overwhelm it.

And if that doesn’t work? He’ll hold a referendum to sweep the Lords away.

Notice the argument: “the will of the people” means the will of the government and institutions that scrutinise or obstruct it become enemies to be overcome.

Democracy isn’t simply winning an election and then doing whatever you like.

Elections give governments power. Democratic institutions put limits on how that power is exercised.

🔥 Britain should be extremely wary of politicians who regard those limits as the problem.

[Jon Elkon @jonelkon]

Bear in mind Farage’s intention is to declare a State of Emergency on day 1 of Reform rule. In other words, impose a dictatorship. @BBCr4today . Keep telling the nation this. Keep challenging Reform on this.

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

A group of fanatical outsiders, wearing strange clothes that cover their faces, are disrupting our way of life. Apparently they're protesting fanatical outsiders who wear strange clothes, cover their faces and disrupt our way of life.

[໊ @i23yvi3]

“Women are too emotional to be leaders”……A female manager at my old job raised her voice once during a stressful meeting and people spent weeks calling her unstable. A male manager once punched a wall during an argument with an employee. Everyone said he was “under a lot of pressure” It's interesting how a woman's anger can supposedly disqualify her from leadership while a man's anger is often treated like evidence that he cares about his job.

[NHS Nurses @SocialistNHS]

Reform are all about protecting women and children but it must only be women and children that agree with them?!

[Spirit Of Attlee @SpiritOfAttlee]

Masked men in balaclavas shut Dover port at dawn and called it stopping the boats. Lorries stacked four miles deep. Families missed ferries. Local women said they felt frightened walking past a wall of silent blokes in black. The conference lot promised to fix it in a hundred days. This is the weekend version. Ordinary Britain needs a working port and a paid bill, not another costume drama with the faces covered.

[DavidRowe ⧖ - Caution, you may encounter nuance. @DavidRoweWTL]

@NHSMillion The UK bed numbers have fallen from 2.8 per 1,000 in 2013, to ~2.4 today, I understand. It's taking efficiency too far hence our brutal waiting lists.

It's a political decision, not a medical one.

[NHS Million @NHSMillion]

Successive governments have failed to address our chronic capacity issues, and in fact the number of beds has actually gone down from 2.8 in 2013.

We think the NHS needs a proper plan to resolve this asap, involving appropriate staffing, funding, and system-wide measures to support it.

Do you agree?

[NHS Million @NHSMillion]

The number of hospital beds per thousand people according to the most recent figures:

🇰🇷 Korea = 12.6
🇯🇵 Japan = 12.5
🇧🇬 Bulgaria = 8.6
🇩🇪 Germany = 7.7
🇷🇴 Romania = 7.3
🇦🇹 Austria = 6.6
🇭🇺 Hungary = 6.5
🇨🇿 Czechia = 6.4
🇵🇱 Poland = 6.3
🇸🇰 Slovak Republic = 5.7
🇭🇷 Croatia = 5.7
🇱🇹 Lithuania = 5.5
🇫🇷 France = 5.5
🇧🇪 Belgium = 5.4
🇨🇳 China = 5.2
🇱🇻 Latvia = 5.0
🇨🇭 Switzerland = 4.4
🇬🇷 Greece = 4.2
🇪🇪 Estonia = 4.1
🇸🇮 Slovenia = 4.1
🇱🇺 Luxembourg = 3.9
🇦🇺 Australia = 3.8
🇵🇹 Portugal = 3.4
🇳🇴 Norway = 3.3
🇦🇷 Argentina = 3.3
🇹🇷 Türkiye = 3.1
🇮🇹 Italy = 3.0
🇮🇱 Israel = 3.0
🇮🇪 Ireland = 2.9
🇪🇸 Spain = 2.9
🇺🇸 United States = 2.8
🇫🇮 Finland = 2.6
🇮🇸 Iceland = 2.6
🇨🇦 Canada = 2.5
🇳🇿 New Zealand = 2.5
🇧🇷 Brazil = 2.5

United Kingdom…

[NHS Million @NHSMillion]

🇬🇧 United Kingdom = just 2.4 hospital beds per thousand people

43% lower than the OECD average

[dave lawrence 🐟🐟🐠 @dave43law]

No punches pulled in the article

Interesting as it highlights an issue that has dogged Faratge throughout his career - he is not a manager, he doesn't manage - if there is conflict h either walks away or removes the challenge.

Farage is the bad boss from hell, a cynical conman, heading a poisonous Reform

https://t.co/Ohe2FV5oov

[Jen Wood - est optimum simpliciter @unojen_wood]

Most journalists should now lose that title and be called what they have become - influencers.

[dave lawrence 🐟🐟🐠 @dave43law]

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
WEST MIDLANDS POLICE STATE THERE WAS NO ADVICE FOR FARAGE NOT TO GO ON STAGE

It was a Reform decision

This is exactly the same as the Clacton byelection scenario and attending the count

[Spirit Of Attlee @SpiritOfAttlee]

Stop the boats in a hundred days. Knock £250 off the bill in a hundred days. Sack the minister who misses. Declare the emergency. Sit parliament till the ink dries.

Same afternoon the stage needed a dog because a banner mentioned five million. Same week two aides became contractors and the leader called it pub talk.

You can stack countdown clocks until the hall forgets what a key looks like. Ordinary people still pay the meter and the landlord on Monday.

That is not a government in waiting. That is a product launch.

[Luke Charters MP @lukejcr]

Earlier this week, Labour passed legislation to strengthen our democracy and crack down on foreign money in British politics.

5 Reform MPs voted against it, including Farage.

Curious this is one of the few pieces of legislation he bothered to vote on? 🧐

[Zoe James @ZoeJames2024]

Let's talk about the #NHS and what happens when you dare to complain.

Because this is something people need to understand.

I didn't complain because I was bored.

I didn't complain because I had nothing better to do.

I didn't complain because I wanted a fight.

I complained because my daughter was being harmed.

I saw things happening that I believed were wrong.

I raised concerns.

I questioned decisions.

I challenged a professional.

Because that's what you are SUPPOSED to do when you believe a vulnerable person isn't being properly protected.

Except apparently there is a massive difference between telling people to " speak up " and actually having the audacity to SPEAK UP.

Because once I did?

Everything changed.

Instead of simply dealing with the concerns I had raised, I became the concern.

Think about that.

A mother raises concerns about what is happening to her vulnerable daughter...

and suddenly the spotlight turns onto the mother.

My behaviour.

My credibility.

My motives.

My questions.

My complaints.

My refusal to shut up.

Apparently that was easier to investigate than the original problem.

And THIS is what makes me so angry.

Because when you're dealing with a huge organisation like the NHS, they have the power.

They have the professionals.

They have the records.

They have the lawyers.

They have the complaints departments.

They have the language.

They have the institutional power.

And what does a parent have?

Their voice.

So when that parent uses the only weapon they have, their voice, why does the system seem so determined to take that away from them?

I was not asking for special treatment.

I was asking for my concerns to be properly investigated.

I was asking people to listen.

And instead I found myself fighting a system that seemed far more interested in dealing with ME than dealing with what I was raising.

That is the part I will never forget.

Because once you've experienced it, you see the complaints system very differently.

You realise that " please complain if you're unhappy " sounds wonderful until you actually make a complaint that someone doesn't want to hear.

Then suddenly you're difficult.

You're challenging.

You're unreasonable.

You're the problem.

No.

I was a mother trying to protect her daughter.

And I make absolutely no apology for that.

If my refusal to stay quiet makes me " difficult, " then so be it.

If asking questions makes me " difficult, " then so be it.

If refusing to accept answers I believe are inadequate makes me " difficult, " then I'll happily wear the fooking label.

Because my daughter's welfare matters more to me than making professionals comfortable.

And here's my message to the NHS:

Don't tell families to speak up if you're going to punish them for doing it.

Don't tell us complaints are welcomed if what you really mean is,

" We welcome complaints that don't make us uncomfortable. "

Don't tell us patient safety comes first if the person raising a patient safety concern ends up being treated like the problem.

And don't expect me to quietly disappear because the system has made it exhausting to keep fighting.

I'm still here.

I'm still asking questions.

I'm still documenting what happened.

I'm still challenging what I believe was wrong.

And I'm still speaking.

Because my daughter deserved better.

And frankly?

So does every vulnerable person whose family has the courage to say:

" Something isn't right here. "

Maybe the NHS should stop asking,

" Why won't this parent shut up? "

And start asking:

" Why did we give her something to complain about in the first place? "

[Priyamvada Gopal © @PriyamvadaGopal]

I invite you to imagine a Black or even Asian professor running a leftwing indoctrination compound in their home in Cambridge as 'alternative college', & then caught on camera offering to break law to funnel dodgy donations & rig a poll to fool the British media & voting public.

[Kelly @broadwaybabyto]

Men are claiming women can’t be trusted to vote because we can be “incapacitated by hormones”.

Men lash out violently ALL the time.

Domestic violence skyrockets when their team loses a football game.

A woman tells them “No” and they assault her.

Should they lose their rights?